Brussels, 15/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - At their meeting in London on 12-14 October, the coastal states (the EU, Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland) failed in their goal of reaching agreement on the management of mackerel stocks in the North-East Atlantic. The talks, however, have not yet failed, sources said on Friday 15 October.
The positions of, on the one hand, the EU and, on the other, Iceland and the Faroe Isles are still far apart, but it was decided to resume discussions at the end of the month (27 and 28 October). With there being, for the moment, no agreement for 2010, Iceland, a new player in mackerel negotiations among coastal states, allocated itself a quota of 130,000 tonnes, and the Faroe Islands took fishing rights for 85,000 tonnes. The EU has stuck to its total allowable catch (TAC) of 367,000 tonnes under the agreement which expired at the end of 2009.
The European Commission, which is negotiating on behalf of the EU, hopes that coastal states will come to an agreement on a long-term mackerel management plan “before the end of the year” (see EUROPE 10230). The agreement sought by the Commission will have to take into consideration the scientific advice on the state of stocks and also that Iceland will be a new coastal state since mackerel are now to be found in its waters (and in great quantities, according to the Icelanders). All the evidence would seem to point to the EU's having to reduce its mackerel quota.
Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Fisheries Richard Lochhead said he was “pleased” to learn that the discussions in London had been “constructive”, and that all the parties had engaged fully in the process. He acknowledged that, with a number of difficult issues to address, “it is not surprising that the situation has not been resolved within three days”. Indeed, he added, a second round of talks had always been planned. It is absolutely essential, he argued, that the new agreement (the 1999 agreement expired at the end of last year) is “fair for Scotland and protects the mackerel stock in the long term”. By way of a warning, he reminded the other coastal states involved in the mackerel fishery of the collapse of the blue whiting “following years of overfishing due to the absence of an international agreement”. (L.C./transl.rt)